Behind a 24 save performance from Charlie Lindgren including an acrobatic save, the Washington Capitals took care of home ice with a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Aliaksei Protas struck first for the Caps at the 19:17 mark in the opening period. Andrew Mangiapane and Matt Roy provided the assists. It was his 12th of the season. In the second, Jakub Vrana would double the leadwith his fifth goal of the season at 16:11. Hendrix Lapierre and Taylor Raddysh provided the assists.
Connor McMichael would make it 3-0 with his 16th goal of the season at the 19:33 mark. Martin Fehervary and Pierre-Luc Dubois had the assists. Mangiapane now has five apples on the season, Roy with seven, Lapierre also with seven, Raddysh with 11, Fehervary with seven, and PLD with 18.
Seth Jarvis would get one back for the Hurricanes with his ninth goal of the season. That came at 10:22 of the third period but that would be all the Canes could score up against Chuck who had another outstanding outing complemented with potentially the save of the year.
For the Capitals it not only snaps a two game losing streak but avenges a loss earlier in the season to the Hurricanes when the Canes won in Raleigh 4-2 on Nov. 3. These teams will see each other twice more but not until April and obvisouly we'll know a lot more about boh of these teams and where they stand by then.
The win improves the Capitals record to 22-8-2 with 46 points to bypass the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division as well as first in the Eastern Conference. They only trail the Winnipeg Jets by one point for the most points this season in the NHL.
Washington outshot Carolina 10-6 in the first period, were outshot 11-6 in the second period and 8-6 in the third to trail in shots overall 25-22. The Canes dominated in face offs 55.4 percent to 44.6 percent. Both teams came up empty on the power play going 0 for 2 on the night each. Each team had six penalty minutes.
Washington outhit Carolina 23-12 and had 27 blocked shots compared to the Canes 13. Carolina had 13 giveawyas while Wasington had seven and the Caps had eight takeaways compared to Carolina's seven.
Next up for the Capitals is a 5 p.m. Sunday evening game against the Los Angeles Kings from Capital One Arena on Monumental Sports Network.